Navigational Tools for the Willfully Lost, 8” x 8”, closed. In current times, our world seems to be very much off its axis. We are in a time of plague, not just medical but political, ecological, and more. The wholesale denial of science and rational thought coupled with the embrace of superstition and misinformation are signaling a need for a return to fact-based actions and ideas, a renewed age of enlightenment. In an attempt to not be completely bleak, I offer this set of wry visual aids for those who will not, cannot see what is really happening. This book began with my application for a Jan and Frank Cicero artist’s fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago, Illinois, in the fall of 2021. For many months the project only existed as the title, a few notes, and a call list for the library. In the spring of 2023, I spent a month in the reading rooms looking at many wonderful books, primarily their many editions of Peter Apian’s Cosmographia from the 16th century, a time of scientific revolution. Apian included a set of five paper instruments in each of his editions. The paper instruments enabled readers to participate in 16th. century mathematical and astrological calculations. Seeing and manipulating the many examples of those centuries old and still functional devices was invaluable to me as I began to work on my own paper tools. I spent the fall of 2023 bringing the tools and the text to their finished forms. The book has 24 pages and five paper tools, all volvelle variations of my devising. The images are from my trace monoprint drawings. The fonts used are Baskerville, Gill Sans and Trattatello. The book was printed letterpress on my Vandercook SP15 printing press using polymer plates from Boxcar Press. The text is printed on Rives BFK, the tools on Chancery paper. The tools are backed with Text Wove paper, hand cut and assembled. The binding is a combination slotted tape/long stitch using flax and abaca cover paper made by Mary Hark. The edition size is 25 standard copies, two deluxe copies, and a couple of artist’s proofs. Will be completed in 2024.
Category: Announcements
Progress on My New Book
Printing has been completed on my new book Navigational Tools for the Willfully Lost. I am beginning assembly of the five paper tools that will be included in each book. This book arises from my research fellowship at the Newberry Library in Chicago last spring. Shown above are the movable components of the paper tools. The book will be completed in time for the Codex book fair.
My Talk at the University of Washington is on YouTube
I gave an overview of my evolving work, as represented in the UW Libraries Book Arts Collection in a talk for the Book Arts Guild at the University of Washington libraries, on March 9, 2023. The recording has been posted to YouTube. The introduction is by Sandra Kroupa, Book Arts and Rare Book Curator, UW Libraries. There are a few intrusions of announcements about the library closing hours. The recording is one hour long, the talk ends after about 50 minutes and then there are some questions and answers.
I include this caveat from the BAG: “This was our first ever hybrid event and we’re clearly not that good with the camera in the UW classroom. The beginning is hard to hear, the ending is abrupt, and we haven’t figured out how to make her more visible while talking. But during her talk you can see her slides and hear Emily clearly, so the main part is good.”
Jan and Frank Cicero Fellowship award
I have been awarded a one month Jan and Frank Cicero artist-in-Residence fellowship at the Newberry Library, Chicago for spring 2023. The fellowship will support my work and research for an upcoming artist’s book with the working title of “Navigational Tools for the Willfully Lost”. I will concentrate my studies on the 16th century navigational and cosmographical texts of the Edward E. Ayer collection. The Ayer collection contains a large number of texts with paper tools such as the Apian Cosmographia 1584 and many more. My project will likely include a combination of paper volvelles, pop-up maps, and prediction/explanation devices relevant to our current time of plague, one not only medical but political, ecological and more, and completion is expected by late 2023, early 2024.
New Video: Gertrude Has a Few Questions
A short video using lines and additional dialogue for the characters of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with a focus on Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZ47SNC1-ZQ
Meggendorfer Artists Book Prize
My book Oscar Wilde: In Earnest and Out, has been selected as a finalist for the Meggendorfer Artists Book Prize, awarded by the Movable Book Society. The winner will be announced at the MBS Conference in Denver, CO, on October 2, 2021. For more information on my book, click on the Books link above.
My contributions to the Artists Book House Conversation series
I had the great pleasure of participating in the Conversations series for the Artists Book House this spring. The video is of a conversation between Jamie Thome and me. The written conversation is a set of questions posed by Shawn Sheehy and my responses. Both conversations are posted here, the link to the video first, then written conversation:
My Fine Press Book Association Keepsake
I have printed a keepsake that will appear in the upcoming deluxe edition of Parenthesis from the Fine Press Book Association https://fpba.com/about/. The idea was sparked by my work in progress titled Madness: Reading Hamlet in the Time of Covid-19 and Other Plagues. The keepsake is letterpress printed from polymer plates with pressure printing using a Vandercook SP-15 on Sakamoto heavy paper. The character depicted is Gertrude, Hamlet’s mother, and she is speaking one of her lines from the play. The keepsake has given rise to a side project called Gertrude Has a Few Questions.
Artists Book House Collaboration
I had the opportunity to do a collaborative project with my nephew Cy Hedayati recently. Artists Book House is a potential Book and Paper Arts Center in Evanston, IL. To see the whole project use this link: https://artistsbookhouse.org/news/2021/5/4/2qxm7fs4e3h7kbzabvr887wbl7qa54
CBAA Grant awarded
I have been awarded a 2021 Member Support grant by the College Book Art Association. I will be working to bring Madness: Reading Hamlet in the Age of Covid-19 and Other Plagues to final form. The grant will allow me to use the wonderful papers of papermakers Andrea Peterson and Mary Hark in the pages of what is planned as an edition of a letterpress printed accordion book with puppet inclusions. At the start of my pandemic year, I discovered to my horror, I was too unsettled to be able to read. I adopted all sorts of coping behaviors instead. I copied the play out word by word on a 55 foot long roll of paper and I made dancing paper puppets called the Solitude Squadron among other activities. This book has been shaped in so many ways by all the events of last year and is as much about the year as the play. I am still working on the various text elements so stay tuned.